Northrop wins $577M contract from Army

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- The Army has awarded a $577 million contract to Northrop Grumman for engineering and manufacturing development of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System.

In an announcement today, the Army said the program's aim is to give soldiers a single system that simplifies workload while providing the Army's contribution to a Joint Single Integrated Air Picture that can be used across all the armed forces.

In 2008, the Army narrowed competition for the work to Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. At that time, a Northrop Grumman executive said during an appearance in Huntsville the company was looking forward to developing and demonstrating some novel concepts for the system, which could be a large program for the company and the Army.

The Army said demand for the system is rooted from experience with operations during Desert Storm, Southern Watch and Iraqi Freedom.